After ending his 14-year legal battle, the Wikileaks founder has finally returned home. Julian Assange landed in Canberra, Australia on Wednesday evening (local time). His return was made possible after the US court in Saipan agreed to release him under a plea deal. Assange, 52, admitted to having obtained and published US military secrets.
The Saipan court sentenced Assange to 5 years and 2 months in prison. However, he spent more time in prison in the UK, awaiting extradition to the United States. Therefore, District Judge Ramona Manglona said that Assange is free.
«We did it. 14 years of legal battles, and we are finally taking him home to Australia to be reunited with Stella Assange and his children, and to get his life back,» said Jen Robinson, one of the lawyers who worked for Assange.»
During more than a decade-long legal saga, Assange spent more than 5 years in a maximum security prison in the UK, and the previous 7 years in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.
He faces 18 criminal charges in the United States. If he had been convicted, Assange would have received almost 175 years in prison. However, the US dropped all but one of the charges, conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defense information.
The case centered around a massive disclosure by Wikileaks in 2010, when the site published a video from a US military helicopter showing the killing of civilians in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. It has also published thousands of confidential documents showing that the US military killed hundreds of civilians in unknown incidents during the war in Afghanistan. Thousands of confidential documents revealing the killing of innocent civilians by the U.S. military in Afghanistan were also published, causing a strong reaction around the world and leading to a complete review of the United States’ involvement in foreign conflicts.
Source: interestingengineering
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